I cannot imagine any thinking person who does not believe the world is getting worse.

The number of slaughtered and the number of refugees from slaughter is immense and growing.

Islamic State now controls territories from Afghanistan to West Africa. Libya is in the process of being added to that list. And other sadistic Islamist movements hold additional territory.

According to Pew Research, approximately 10 percent of world Muslims have a favorable opinion of the Islamic State and terror against civilians. That’s more than 100 million people.

The Iranian regime has just increased the reward it will give to anyone who murders Indian novelist Salman Rushdie, is increasing its repression at home, now has more than a hundred billion additional dollars to spend on terror and regularly calls for the annihilation of Israel.

Iran just received from Russia the most powerful anti-aircraft weapons that exist outside the United States, making a successful air attack on Iran almost impossible.

Europe is allowing in another million migrants from the Middle East, few of whom share Europe’s primary moral values. One consequence is that European women are being sexually attacked in increasing numbers. Another is that European countries are making criticism of Muslims or Islam — no matter how rational the critique — a crime punishable by jail time and/or fines.

The only thing stopping regular mass murder of Europeans and Americans is increased European and American police work. And no one believes that this will suffice to prevent future attacks.

Russia is led by a KGB man who seeks to replace American influence with Russian influence wherever possible. And he is allowed to do so by the American president and the Democratic Party.

While Russia continues to attempt, in Charles Krauthammer’s words, “to fracture and subordinate” Ukraine, the United States under Obama refuses to send Ukraine weapons.

The United States is led by a president whose primary foe seems to be the prime minister of Israel, even though the prime minister’s country happens to be the freest, most moral and most pro-American country in the Middle East.

The commander of the U.S. Pacific Command recently told Congress “that China is clearly militarizing the South China Sea,” in order to gain “hegemony in East Asia.”

Cuba now has American recognition, and as a direct result has felt free to increase its subjugation of the Cuban people. In January, the Cuban regime arrested 1,414 political dissidents, the second-most ever recorded. It will be rewarded by a visit from President Obama.

In the United States, most universities are being taken over by a fascistic expression of leftism. Student thugs take over administration offices with impunity, shout down speakers with whom they differ, and many faculty members support them. In the name of “diversity” and “tolerance,” American universities, once a jewel of free thought and intellectual inquiry, have become places Americans who cherish liberty and cherish America increasingly fear to send their children.

Contempt for America and its founding ideals are indoctrinated into America’s youth from high school on. If shown any of the iconic paintings of the Founders — such as signing the Declaration of Independence or deliberating at the Constitutional Convention — rather than seeing great people creating a great nation, most young Americans now only see racist, sexist, rich, slave-owning white males.

As its universities make clear, the West is committing suicide. At UCLA one doesn’t have to read a single play by Shakespeare in order to receive a degree in English. But one is fully indoctrinated regarding “White Privilege,” “systemic racism,” “income inequality,” “homophobia,” “hate speech,” “climate change” and whatever radicals care about.

A Republican presidential debate opens with a comment by the leading Republican candidate about the size of his penis. And the audience cheers.

The American president, a black man elected in the hope that he would unify the races, has overseen the greatest rift between the races since the 1960s. His repeated references to “Ferguson,” reinforcing the lie that a white policeman killed an innocent black teenager for no reason other than the young man’s race, is only one such example. One result is a rhetorical (and increasingly lethal) war on police that has led many officers to minimize proactively policing largely black areas.

The Democratic presidential race is between a socialist who has contempt for capitalism, the only economic system that has ever lifted large swaths of humanity out of poverty, and a woman who is so corrupt that she should be serving time in prison, not campaigning for president.

Meanwhile, the Republican race is led by a man who has mocks a POW as a loser; who repeats the libel that George W. Bush knew there were no WMD in Iraq; who calls for the killing of terrorists’ families; and, who, as noted, proudly talks to America about the size of his sexual organ.

Many generations have believed that the world was getting worse. But since 1776, there was a great nation that one could still rely on to stem the decay. Now that great nation, under the influence of its own elites, men and women of the left, is itself in decay.